


Nice to Know You, Goodbye

by NeoVenus22



Series: Troubled Water [3]
Category: Power Rangers S.P.D., Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-26
Updated: 2009-12-26
Packaged: 2017-10-05 07:07:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeoVenus22/pseuds/NeoVenus22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bridge finally tells his teammates about his clandestine relationship, and decides to leave SPD.  Z has to finally confront what she's really feeling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nice to Know You, Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers: PRSPD 1x29 'Katastrophe'

"Hey, Jack, have you seen—" began Z, coming into the rec room, but the words died abruptly when she saw the expression on Jack's face. "What's up?"

He held up a piece of paper. "Do you know what this is?"

"Kinda waiting for you to clue me in on that one," she said.

"It's a note from Bridge. Actually, it's his letter of resignation."

"His _what_?" she demanded, snatching the paper out of Jack's hands. She scanned it over, taking in only about every other word in her haste, but getting the gist. "Why is Bridge leaving SPD?"

"I don't know," Jack admitted.

Z's hand clenched, the paper wrinkling in her grasp. "Well, we'll just see about that," she said, turning sharply on her heel and stalking out of the room with Jack behind her.

Bridge was in his room, already packing. He was in jeans and a t-shirt. It was gray, and not green, and advertised some band that Z had never heard of, and not SPD. He was folding a few items of clothing and tucking them into a suitcase around some picture frames and knick-knacks. His side of the room was stripped, barren, and it was weird to see Sky's side being the one with life. A shell-shocked Sky was sitting on his bed, watching, while Syd hovered near the door, looking close to tears.

"What the hell, Bridge?" demanded Z, waving his letter. "You can't just leave SPD."

"Well, Z, I sort of already have," said Bridge. He seemed quieter than usual.

"Why?" asked Syd in a heartbroken voice. "Don't you like it here? Don't you like us?"

"I love it here," Bridge said. "But I can't stay here."

"Why not?"

"SPD has very strict policies about cadets and relationships."

"Yeah, but you don't have a relationship with anyone," said Z dismissively.

"Um," said Bridge awkwardly. The others were all tense and confused. "There's... I... Well, I got married."

Z could've sworn she'd been grabbed by her ankles and held upside-down. "Run that by me again?" she said, cutting through the silence with a disbelieving tone. "You got... did you say married?"

"Um," said Bridge again uselessly.

"To _who_?" demanded Jack.

"Duncan," said Bridge.

"I think I speak for everyone when I say, who's Duncan?" said Sky. He was certainly speaking for Z, because she'd never heard the name before. There were so many things flowing through her head at the moment that she couldn't even pick and choose which one to examine. Bridge was married. To someone she'd never even heard of. To a _guy_ she'd never even heard of. And he'd never even mentioned any of this to her.

"He's... well, he's..."

"Your husband?" offered Syd with a weird look in her eyes.

"Yeah. That works."

"Wait," said Jack. "You're gay?" Out of the corner of her eye, Z noticed Sky tensing slightly.

"No," said Bridge.

"No," said Jack flatly. "You just married a dude, but you're not gay."

"Not really," offered Bridge with a shrug. "He's just a person. It doesn't matter whether or not he's a guy, or I'm a guy, or we're both guys. I don't think of myself as gay."

"Are you what, bisexual then?" asked Syd. Of all of them, it looked like perhaps she was the most comfortable with this arrangement. Or at the very least, the first of them willing to come around. Z, meanwhile, was feeling sort of cold.

Bridge shrugged again, and Z half-wanted to kill him. For a guy that you could never shut up, and who got excited over a different kind of cheese programmed into the machine in the rec room, he was being awfully quiet and restrained and it was weird and severely non-helpful.

"Nope," he said. "Just... I love him."

A series of words, well, just the one word in particular, that Z never thought she'd hear Bridge say.

Syd nodded. "So when do we get to meet him?"

"He'll be picking me up in an hour," said Bridge. He furrowed his brow. "I'm really sorry about this, guys."

"That's fine," said Sky, standing up abruptly. "We can find a new teammate, no problem." He stalked out of his room.

"Sky..." said Syd, watching him go.

"I'll deal with it," said Jack. He started to follow, but turned to Bridge. "Listen. This... I'm sorry you have to go. You're a good teammate, and a good Ranger. More importantly than that, you were a friend to me when I didn't really have a lot of friends, and that means a lot to me." He clapped Bridge on the shoulder. "Keep in touch, okay?"

Bridge smiled, the first time since this whole thing had started. "Will do. I promise."

"Cool. I better go deal with Sky, then."

"Right."

Jack left, leaving Bridge with the girls. Syd had moved from her post at the door to help Bridge finish off the last of his packing, informing him with a teasing smile that he was doing it wrong. Syd and Bridge had been friends for almost as long as Z and Jack had, so she was the one who was going to deal with this whole situation the best, Z realized. For Syd, the only major offense was that he hadn't told her off the bat.

But Z was dealing with a knot pulling tightly in her stomach. One that just flared with anger that Syd was trying to pretend like everything was fine. She stood for a few moments, fuming at them. "Have you told the Commander?"

"Yes," said Bridge, not quite turning to look at her. He _must_ have been feeling the anger radiating off of her, and he wasn't doing anything about it. Just packing.

"And what did he say?"

"He wasn't thrilled about it, if that's what you're asking. But you know the Commander doesn't stop people from resigning." What irritated her the most in all of this was how ridiculously calm he was about the whole thing. How decidedly un-Bridge he was. He was matter-of-fact, and he didn't babble or stammer or take ten minutes to get to the point.

"So he's just letting you go. What are we supposed to do?"

"You're all very good at your jobs," he said, folding a shirt. "You'll be fine. Besides, with Kat and Sam and the Commander, there are more than enough Rangers that you won't need me."

"You can't just _leave_, Bridge," she said. Why didn't he get that? He wasn't some expendable cadet, he was Bridge. He was the heart of the team. He was the one who made bad jokes in the middle of a battle, and yet could hit a bull's-eye with his eyes closed. He was Bridge, and SPD would be so quiet without him haunting its halls.

"This isn't my place anymore, Z."

"Where's your place, then? In some crappy apartment with your..." She couldn't say the word.

"Husband," he said. "Yeah. Duncan needs me."

"And we don't?" Z was so angry that her body had tensed up to the point of aching. She had to leave, and so she did, storming out of Bridge and Sky's room, and heading to Jack's.

The Red Ranger was sitting on his bed, looking through his box of comic books. "Jack?" asked Z.

He waved a book. "Thought Bridge could use a few comics in the new place, seeing as how he can't borrow mine anymore. Besides, on SPD salary, I can't buy him a wedding present." Jack looked up sharply. "That is the way these things work, isn't it? Gotta get him a wedding present?"

Wedding etiquette was the last thing she wanted to talk about, but she still sat down on Jack's bed. "How's Sky?"

"Pissed," said Jack casually. "I think mostly because he's worried the Commander might make us room together." He smiled, but Z wasn't in the mood for jokes.

"Okay, I guess the better question is how are _you_," Jack said. "You all right, Z?"

"This sucks," she said.

"Hey, I'm going to miss the guy, too, but it's not the end of the world. Unless..."

Z suddenly became very aware that her best friend was staring at her. "Unless what?"

He grinned widely. "You like him, don't you."

"Oh, shut up, Jack."

"You do! You have a crush on him. I should've realized it; this is just like the time you met that kid Lenny when we were staying in in West Tech Park. Oh, man. Yeah. You and Bridge were always hanging around each other, you had so much chemistry..."

"Jack, stop."

Jack stopped. And then he thought about it, and then he sobered. "Oh. Right."

"Right," she said. "Whatever that was, it's done."

"Because he's gay," supplied Jack. "Or he isn't. I don't even know."

"I was going to go with _married_," she said, rolling her eyes. She didn't like Jack knowing this about her. She didn't really like knowing it about herself. Z's primary emotion was anger, and it was how she dealt with everything. This, while it could prompt anger, was in itself, not actually anger. It was something weaker and more dangerous.

"Yeah, of course. Listen, Z—"

"Oh, please don't give me some speech about being honest with myself. Especially when you can't be bothered to tell Syd that you like her. Is that being honest, Jack?"

Jack, looking away, mumbled, "She likes Sky."

"She likes you too, genius. But that's not the point. The point is, Bridge is _married_ and _moving_ and even if I felt that way, which I don't, me saying anything now would do jack squat."

Jack promptly got off the bed and squatted on the ground. It was an old, stupid joke of theirs, but it got Z laughing.

"You're sort of an idiot; you know that, don't you," she said, fighting to keep the grin off her face.

"You seem to have a thing for idiots," he retorted.

Z couldn't think of an appropriate response, so she instead started to rifle through Jack's box of comics. The two of them were such little boys; all of the books were about caped superheroes saving the day.

"You know," Jack said quietly, "telling him will do something. It'll make you feel better."

He was probably right, but she didn't want to admit that. "It won't change anything," she insisted.

"Probably not," he agreed, stacking the collection of books they'd assembled and straightening it. "But if you tell him, then you can move on."

"I thought I was moving."

They looked up from their task to see Bridge standing there with a sheepish smile.

"Haven't you left yet?" Z found herself snapping.

"Nope. I wanted to get in one last training session here, because there's no other space in Newtech or Neptune like the one here. Well, there are spaces where I can train, obviously. And I mean, some of them are like the ones here. I mean, four walls, floor, ceiling... it's basically the same, right? Well, except for the sim room, and Boom in the suit, and—I was hoping that you'd spar with me, Z."

Oh, she was going to spar with him, all right. She followed him to the training room and waited while he called up a simulation program. The room shimmered and turned into Z's favorite space, the gorgeous cliff-side field.

"No powers," said Bridge. It seemed only fair: when they were going up against one of Kat's programs, anything went. But when they were going up against each other, Z was the only Ranger with an offensive power. Pop a few clones, and she'd clobber Bridge. Of course, that didn't sound like a bad idea...

"Fine," she conceded. They took their positions, and on Z's command, they went to work.

Maybe Bridge had been telling the truth when he said he wanted to get in one last spar at SPD, but his heart didn't seem to be into the fight. He was only at about fifty percent, content to step back and let Z score her blows. He was doing this, she realized, as a way for her to get all of her resentment out. Annoyed, she kicked him squarely in the chest, and he went flying back onto the lush carpet of grass.

She waited for him to get up, since it wasn't fair to kick a man when he was already down. But he didn't move, just lay there, breathing raggedly. She knelt over him, concerned. "Bridge? Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"Just winded," he coughed.

Z grinned. "So no babbling for awhile?"

"Not for a few minutes, at least."

She sat down next to him. She didn't know how the sim worked to make the grass soft, but she wasn't about to question it. It felt really good. "It's going to be really quiet around here without you."

With a long, deliberate breath, he sat up. "That's good, right?"

Z gave him a sideways glance. "Well, maybe not." She chewed on her lip slightly before giving up and saying, "I'm going to miss you, Bridge."

"I'm going to miss you, too. And Jack. And Syd. And Sky. And Boom. And Dr. Manx. And the Commander. And R.I.C.—"

She held up her hand. "Please, stop."

"Sorry." Bridge dropped his head, looking embarrassed.

"That wasn't what I meant, anyway. I meant that me, personally, I'm going to really miss you, because—"

"Bridge?"

The simulation disappeared, and the two Rangers were left sitting on the floor. Standing in the doorway was a tall blond man, staring at them. "I'm sorry. They said you were in here, and I didn't... I don't know what I did..." He waved ineffectually at the dull room.

Bridge scrambled to his feet. "Don't worry about it, it's okay. No one here knows how to work it anyway. Except me. And Dr. Manx. And Boom. And—"

Z sighed, rolling her eyes and getting to her feet. Bridge got the hint. "Oh! Right. Duncan, this is my teammate, Z. She's the Yellow Ranger. Z, this is Duncan."

Z stuck out her hand and shook with the infamous Duncan. He was cute, she decided, but there was something sort of dead about him. The smile he gave her didn't reach his eyes. He looked awkward and uncomfortable. "Nice to meet you," he said. "I've heard a lot about you guys."

"I wish I could say the same," she said shortly. She didn't think she liked him. He was all wrong for Bridge. He was too quiet and polite and bland. And Bridge was too... well, Bridge.

Bridge colored slightly. "Sorry."

"The van's here," Duncan said to him. "The others helped me load your stuff."

"You should've come found us," said Bridge. "The extra hands couldn't have hurt."

"Your friend Jack said you were still saying your goodbyes. I didn't want to interrupt." Z bristled. And yet, he had.

"Oh. Well. I guess it's time to go, then, huh?"

Duncan nodded. "Yep. You ready?"

Bridge kissed Duncan's cheek, "Yep." Z glanced away. At the moment, she couldn't figure out who she hated more, Bridge, Duncan, Jack, or herself.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to look, and was immediately swept into a warm hug. "I'm going to miss you a lot, too, Z. I'm sorry it had to happen like this. It wasn't you. I just wasn't in the right place."

Z closed her eyes, deciding it couldn't hurt to push away her usual anger for a few minutes. She hugged him back tightly.

"I'm really glad we're friends, Z," he said, releasing her with a big grin.

It was infectious, and she couldn't help smiling back, even though at the same time, she wanted to hit the both of them. "Me too."

At the bottom of SPD's front entrance, Z fell into rank next to the rest of her squad. Commander Cruger gave an impassioned speech about honor and loyalty and Bridge's importance to the team. They saluted him goodbye, and with a final wave, Bridge climbed in the front seat of the rental van and drove away from SPD.

"You cool, Z?" asked Jack.

She smiled tightly. "Fine." All of the fighting had made her too tired to feel anything other than a little limp. But when she thought about it, she really was fine.

The crowd dispersed, everyone heading back to their lives. Z turned and followed.


End file.
